The story
Facel was founded on 20 December 1939 by Bronzavia, a French manufacturer of military aircraft, to make special components. Marcel Koehler (formerly of motorcycle manufacturer Koehler-Escoffier) directed Facel from 1939 to 1945. He gave way to Jean Daninos when he returned from the United States, summoned by Henri Feuillée, the ex-boss of Bronzavia and a large shareholder of Facel. Jean Daninos had begun his career with Citroen, where he assisted in the design of the Traction coupés and cabriolets. He moved to Morane-Saulnier, then in 1937 to Bronzavia as technical director. During WWII he worked in the US with General Aircraft, which was using Bronzavia patents, but he returned in 1945 and took charge of Facel. Daninos merged Facel with Métallon, a tie maintained until January 1953.
Coachwork provider
Daninos had Facel begin manufacturing short-run and special complete finished bodies for the major French brands. In conjunction with l'Aluminium Français Facel designed the all-aluminium alloy Panhard Dyna X and then built around 45,000 examples for Panhard. The body work assembly division was established in 1948. It made various models of Simca Sport and drew publicity by designing with Pininfarina and then building a special body on a Bentley Mark VI chassis. The car was named the Bentley Cresta. The exercise was repeated in 1951 and named Cresta II. September 1951 saw the introduction of its Ford Comète. Production of the Comète ended in 1955 when Simca took over Ford France. The styling of the Crestas and Comètes was developed into the shape of the first Vega.
Scooter bodies, truck bodies, tractor bodies, jeeps and smaller components
During the same period, Facel-Metallon pressed out body panels for Delahaye's army jeeps (painted and upholstered); Simca, Delahaye and Somua's trucks (painted and upholstered); scooters by Vespa, Piaggio and Motobécane; tractors by Massey Ferguson; and stainless-steel bumpers, hubcaps and grilles for Simca/Ford and for Renault.
Aviation
In conjunction with Hispano-Suiza, Facel-Métallon and Facel also turned out combustion chambers in special metals for Rolls-Royce jet engines.
From Wikipedia’s article on Facel Vega, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4